On party members

When pugging (Pick Up Group ing, for those who haven’t seen this acronym) I’ve come to develop cues for when this is going to be a bad team – or at least have problems. Unlike many of my peers, a tank who has chosen to not use the shield isn’t high on my list. And hunters are WAAAY down on my auto-eject list, though I’ll know know in the first couple of battles whether they’re good or an example of why so many others don’t like them.

No, my biggest frustrations have almost always come from warlocks and mages. Both of whom have a habit of getting in melee range of the fight. If I have to heal either before any mob uses an AoE, then we have a problem.

Take my group last night. Two level 70 warriors, a level 70 priest (me on my disc/holy), level 64 warlock, level 60 mage. One warrior is tank. First battle of Ramparts (a simple pull of four), no darkcaster, and I find myself giving both the clothies a Greater Heal. Now rather than numbers let me give these in proportion. A GH on the mage and the warlock gives about 50 to 60% their total health. On both the warriors, a GH is about 20% total health. (All these based on heals given during the instance, not ‘in general’ – though that applies as well.)

I should have, but didn’t, made one of my standard announcements after the first time. As in… “I will spare a renew for the mage and the warlock. But big heals are reserved for the two warriors and the voidwalker.” And stuck to it even when it meant the mage or warlock died.

Oh, a hint to each of those. If you are a mage, Just because Ice Block means a short period of no damage while mobs are peeled off your back, you are not the preferred puller. I mean it – the tank chooses who pulls. As to the warlock, when you glory in the huge hits you’re making, please remember that THIS is why the mob is peeling off the tank. If your hits aren’t dropping the mob in its tracks, you need to throttle back – or I will not keep up with the heals. And “why did you let me die again” will be met with silence because it’s more polite than the ridicule you deserve.

About…

I've experience with many priests of many races and specs on several servers. The more I play, the more I realize how much I do not yet know. This is a share of some of what I have learned.
My main these days is Zingiber on the Undermine server.